Gul also said Turkey would not recognise any new states that might emerge if Iraq were to split up and said that none of its neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, wished to see the country divided.

"If there is a division, we will not recognise any new government in the region," he said.

"We [Turkey and its neighbours] are all having the same target: to keep Iraq as one."

Legitimate

Separately, Gul urged the US and Iraq to deal with several thousand fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that are based in northern Iraq, saying if they were not brought under control, Turkey's military would intervene.

"We are expecting the Americans to do it. Either they have to do this, or if they are not able to do this, we have to do this. It is so legitimate," he said.

Ankara has repeatedly asked US forces to take action against the PKK, which uses the Kurdish area of northern Iraq as a base for attacks against Turkey.

More than 30,000 people have been killed, mostly in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey, since the PKK began its armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in 1984.